Thomas E. Herbranson

Thomas E. Herbranson (1933–2009) was an American Lutheran pastor and hymn writer whose ministry combined parish service, mission work, and church music. He was born on December 3, 1933, and later served in congregations that became part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The history of Christ the King Lutheran Church in White Bear Lake, Minnesota, records him as its second pastor, installed in 1962; he served there until accepting a call to Mexico City in 1966.

Herbranson's obituary records additional ministry in Winona, Minnesota, as well as service at Westwood Lutheran Church in St. Louis Park and Immanuel Lutheran Church in Eden Prairie. It also notes his long connection with sacred music: he sang in the St. Olaf College Choir and, later in life, with the Augsburg Centennial Singers. These musical commitments place his hymn writing within a broader life of Lutheran worship and pastoral ministry rather than as an isolated literary activity.

His best-known hymn text is “This Is the Spirit's Entry Now,” a Common Meter baptismal hymn. Copyright and hymnal records identify the text with Herbranson and preserve it in Lutheran, Methodist, United Church, and other hymnals. He died on November 13, 2009, aged seventy-five. Modern licensing indexes continue to treat his hymn text as copyrighted and identify the estate or its administrators as the rights holder.